Alice in Wonderland DVD boycott

Photo by erjprunczyk via Flickr

With the widely anticipated opening of Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, Disney and associates have just averted what could have been a huge cinematic boycott in Europe.

After Disney released news to drastically accelerate the release of the 3D Alice in Wonderland DVD European theaters were outraged and openly threatened to significantly affect Disney’s pocket book.

The standard time in which films are released on DVD runs between the four and six month period. It is because of this standard that European theaters were outraged to hear that the Alice in Wonderland DVD release was scheduled only three months after the theatrical debut. Disney was reportedly attempting to experiment with DVD release times due to drastic declines in DVD sales.

Large European owners weren’t so comfortable with Disney’s experiment as they feared the drastic change in the DVD release date would significantly discourage movie goes from shelling out their hard earned money at the movies. For a couple of weeks prior to the theatrical debut, tensions were high as two of the largest theatrical companies in Britain, most Dutch theater companies, and even America’s AMC theater company announced planned boycotts of the film.

Photo by AMMY.LOU via Flickr

Recently British cinema giant, Oden, announced plans to reverse the boycott after private negotiations with the Walt Disney Company. Although no specifics of the negotiations were announced it is clear that negotiations ensured both parties benefited in some way. Boycotts with other Dutch and American theater companies have yet to be solved as Disney representatives are scheduled to open negotiations before the release date, March 2^nd.

With tensions high and movie goers eager to get their Johnny Depp fix, movie giants will have to resolve the issue dilligently to not lose their loyal fans. Only time will tell for what reason Alice’s second trip down the rabbit hole is  memorable.